Hi guys,

I am required to take one philosophy course in order to fullfill some requirements I need for post-grad plans.

I am currently enrolled in summer school for Philosophy 2G03 (social and political issues)... however I am finding class a little intense lol.. maybe its because i've been a science student for 3 years, but i just felt really 'out of my element' as the class was sort of held in a 'debate style' and i felt like i didn't know how to contribute.

Could anyone who's taken some philosophy courses recommend a good/easy philosophy course for someone who is a COMPLETE beginner to philosophy? This is my final year and therefore my final chance to bring up my average as high as I can before I graduate and pursue post-grad plans... so i really cant risk taking a course which will ruin my GPA!!

Thank you so much!!

Well, remember that science is really just 'natural philosophy' - that is, a relatively standardized approach to philosophical questions about the natural world. If anything, I'd argue that philosophy students ought to be well-versed in the scientific method - one can call scientific problems the 'easy' problems of philosophy. Unfortunately, it seems that most (philosophy students included) think that philosophy is more about reciting Plato and Aristotle.

All ranting aside, philosophy of science (3D03) would be a great course to take if you want to understand your own discipline. It may not be easy, however. Personally, I find that I do better in courses that I find stimulating rather than courses that others find 'easy'.

I would say take 2B03. It's intro to logic, and its generally very easy. I 12'd it without thinking TOO much, and im sure the majority of the class did fairly well. There's no essays/research, but just a quiz every week, one question to hand in almost every week, and a final.

Philosophy 1E03 was really easy and was pretty beginner, I think. I had never taken a philosophy class before it and did very well.

Originally Posted by RankNullity

I would say take 2B03. It's intro to logic, and its generally very easy. I 12'd it without thinking TOO much, and im sure the majority of the class did fairly well. There's no essays/research, but just a quiz every week, one question to hand in almost every week, and a final.

yeah, it's a disappointingly easy course. I took it too. It's not really 'philosophy', though. (well, it is, but let's not get into this). You don't really cover 'logic' as a discipline, you cover symbolic manipulations

Philosophy 1A03 is the easiest class I've taken at Mac so far. The course had 3 essays during the term and 1 essay written for the final exam. All the information on the topics of the essays can be found online (reading the book is not necessary) on sites like Spark Notes. Also for the final exam, the prof gives you the topic/question that is on the exam on the last day of class, so you can prepare for it in advance. Easy "A" course in my opinion.

hey may i ask what ur planning on doing post-grad?

...

also are philosophy 1a03 and 2b03 heavily based on memorization ( i ask cus my gr 12 philo class we had to memorize a ton of philosophers, their theories, and a whole bunch of other theories, and in the end it was overwhelming -- i hate memorizing )

...

also do you have to be really good at English, im terrible at grammar so would the essays be marked more for content or context ( so are they marked heavily on grammar and stuff??)

for philosophy 2B03, it is not like your regular first year philosophy courses. Nothing about philosophers, dates, etc. It's a logic course that teaches you how to 'prove' statements essentially. for example, if A implies B, and you are given A, then you have B. the course is mainly doing things like that

^ Yep. If I may clarify, you're taught to prove statements using truth-definitions (i.e. Tarski's definition of truth) for the first-order predicate calculus.

@krup
You're taught about how to work within what's called 'first-order predicate logic'. It's the most common system used to axiomatise mathematics, and much of computer science is based on it as well. You won't learn anything about the system, but you will learn how to operate within it. The course is basically just symbol-shunting.
The bigger picture of logic is the preservation of (defined) truth. In first-order logic, for instance, you've got a set of inferential rules that do the preserving - modus ponens, etc.

Originally Posted by krup92

hey may i ask what ur planning on doing post-grad?

...

also are philosophy 1a03 and 2b03 heavily based on memorization ( i ask cus my gr 12 philo class we had to memorize a ton of philosophers, their theories, and a whole bunch of other theories, and in the end it was overwhelming -- i hate memorizing )

...

also do you have to be really good at English, im terrible at grammar so would the essays be marked more for content or context ( so are they marked heavily on grammar and stuff??)

Philosophy 1A03 does not require any memorization at all. like i said, the term essays' information can be found online, so it doesn't require any memorization. All though for the final exam, even though the topic/question is given to you ahead of time, you still have to memorize that information so you can write your essay during the exam because there is no cheat/crib sheet for the exam.

EDIT: you do need decent essay writing skills, but marks are not deducted for grammar mistakes. At least that was the case for my TA, who marked the essays based on content and understanding. Also, grade 12 philosophy material is somewhat similar to the content in 1A03, which makes it easier to understand the content you learn in this course.

Honestly when I saw the name of this post I expected to open it and see the troll face... BUT I heard amazing things about 2B03.

thanks for the suggestions everyone!!

do you think a philosophy course is do-able during the school year though? Im worried about essay writing and reading.... it seems time consuming? how long are the reading/writing assignments?

should i stay in the summer philosophy course so I can focus more time on it? or do you think all the reading and writing is do-able during the fall/winter terms? like with a full course load?

Originally Posted by mandee08

thanks for the suggestions everyone!!

do you think a philosophy course is do-able during the school year though? Im worried about essay writing and reading.... it seems time consuming? how long are the reading/writing assignments?

should i stay in the summer philosophy course so I can focus more time on it? or do you think all the reading and writing is do-able during the fall/winter terms? like with a full course load?

i would say it is very doable for Philosophy 1A03. i took it with a full course load, and I only spent two days on the essays before the deadlines and received really good grades on them. The TAs are very understanding and helpful. In my opinion I would take it during the fall/winter terms so you can enjoy your summer instead of wasting your time on campus right now.

I'll second Philos 1A03. It's probably the "easiest" philosophy course in the sense that there isn't that much work you have to do for it and you can get away with not doing the readings. The TAs mark fairly easily and focus mainly on your understanding of whatever topic you're writing about. It's all pretty basic.

If you're interested in bioethics, you might want to look into Philos 2D03 (Moral Issues) as well.

I took Philosophy of Religion and I loved it. As a science student, it might be interesting to you (depending on how you look at religion/evolution). It wasn't the type of class that only philosophy students can understand. I was in Pol Sci at the time and I enjoyed it. I wrote my final paper on "Can God create a rock so heavy that even he cannot lift it?"
It was a fun class